Saturday, December 26, 2009

I've written before about Edward Wright's novels (see here, here, and here) in the fine series about John Roy Horn, a disgrace '40s B-movie actor turned investigator. Damnation Falls is a standalone (so far, at any rate) about another disgraced man, Randall Wilkes, formerly a columnist for a Chicago newspaper.

When he's asked to write a biography of his friend Sonny McMahan, former governor of Tennessee, Wilkes returns to their hometown of Pilgrim's Rest, and the next thing he knows, McMahan's mother is murdered. But not before she gives Wilkes a cryptic message. Then McMahan's footloose father, who's supposed to be dead, turns up alive, and there's another murder. How do the killings fit in with McMahan's plans to build a big Civil War study center and museum in Pilgrim's Rest? And where does Wilkes's father, a Civil War historian come into it? Wilkes reporter's instincts kick in, and he finds himself the target of a killer as he pries into things and digs into the past of the town and some of its citizens.

A complex plot, good writing and smooth first-person narration made me glad I picked this one up. Check it out.

. . . you become a Kindle owner. I would never have bought one for myself, but Judy and I received one from our son for Christmas. It's an interesting device, for sure. I've downloaded a book, but when will I read it? Time will tell.

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Restoring James Bond : POPJOURNALISM.CA: "Over two-and-a-half painstaking years, Lowry’s company and MGM worked on restoring picture and sound quality on Bond films from 1962’s Dr. No to 2002’s Die Another Day."

Duo Accused of Flashing Fake Receipts | MyFoxHouston.com: "A thief and his alleged apprentice were arrested after detectives caught them flashing forged receipts for items they hadn't purchased at a Sam's Club, police said.[. . . .]Lynn is accused of printing out authentic-looking receipts from his computer before heading to the Sam's Club, according to the statement. He would take anything he wanted and show the fake receipt to employees at the door without actually ever paying at the registers."

Average Net user now online 13 hours per week | Digital Media - CNET News: "The Harris Interactive poll, released Wednesday, found that 80 percent of U.S. adults go online, whether at home, work, or elsewhere. Those who surf the Net spend an average of 13 hours per week online, but that figure varies widely. Twenty percent are online for two hours or less a week, while 14 percent are there for 24 hours or more."

Richard 'Roadkill' Bourque, chef for the Smithfield Sportsman's Club, said he is on the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management's list of vendors authorized to retrieve, prepare, cook and serve deer killed on the state's roads, the Providence (R.I.) Journal reported Wednesday."

Woman calls 911 when husband refuses to eat dinner: "Prosecutors will review the case of a woman authorities claim has called 911 30 times over six months for non-emergency reasons, including a call to complain that her husband refused to eat his dinner. Last Friday, the woman allegedly made a pair of calls to 911, including a hang-up and another where a woman was heard screaming."

Hit Men Kill Mexican Hero's Family - WSJ.com: "The brazen murder of several family members of a Mexican Naval hero threatens to start a dangerous new chapter in the country's drug war, in which cartels increasingly resort to terror tactics to try to force the government to back off.

More than a dozen hit men carrying AK-47 and AR-15 assault rifles burst into a house in eastern Mexico around midnight Monday, gunning down several relatives of 3rd Petty Officer Melquisedet Angulo, the 30-year-old who was hailed as a national hero last week after being killed in a battle that left drug lord Arturo Beltran Leyva dead."

iWon News - Bride marries arriving groom at Texas airport: "A woman in a wedding gown surprised her fiance by greeting him at a Texas airport along with a justice of the peace. Robyn Moore and William Acosta exchanged vows Monday at Corpus Christi International Airport after he got off a plane arriving from Toledo, Ohio.

A note found on gunman Jose Molina’s body expressed outrage that the nurse — in whom he shared a romantic interest — had accepted $50 from Eugenio De Los Santos for sexual encounters, according to investigators."

Man with 5-inch knife stuck in chest orders coffee | Odd News | Comcast.net: "A 52-year-old man complained only about the cold weather before walking into a diner with a five-inch knife sticking out of his chest. The unnamed man called a Warren 911 operator on Sunday night to ask that an ambulance be sent to Bray's, an eatery in neighboring Hazel Park. He said he had been stabbed during a robbery attempt half a mile away, then walked to the restaurant and called 911 from a pay phone."

Barbara Billingsley - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "Barbara Billingsley (born December 22, 1915) is an American film, television, voice and character actress of stage, who in her five decades of television came to prominence in the 1950s in the big screen in The Careless Years opposite Natalie Trundy, followed by her best-known role, that of June Cleaver on Leave it to Beaver and its sequel Still the Beaver (also known as The New Leave It to Beaver)."

Nilly Mauck lived in her condominium for two years and said she never had problem until a series of strange events eventually led to a company coming into her home and throwing away everything she owned."

Customer destroys perfume display || OnlineAthens.com: "An angry customer destroyed more than $1,000 worth of perfume Saturday afternoon after a clerk at Joy Joy Beauty, 224 Hawthorne Ave., told her she could not return several items without a receipt, according to an Athens-Clarke police report."

Remains of house from Jesus' era found in Nazareth - NYPOST.com: "NAZARETH, Israel - Remains of a house from the time of Jesus have been found in Nazareth -- the first discovery of its kind in the place where he grew up, Israel’s Antiquities Authority said on Monday.[. . . .]'The discovery is of the utmost importance since it reveals for the very first time a house from the Jewish village of Nazareth,' Alexandre said in a statement issued by the Antiquities Authority."

Celebrating the winter solstice the Chinese way: Just eat | CNNGo.com: "Take a whole crocodile tail, seal it off in a pot with abalone broth and cook it for over six hours. That is how the Cantonese render a scaly amphibian edible. It was delicious. The meat tasted intensely of the best, most tender chicken thighs, while the prized skin and fat were of a firm jelly texture, much like high quality sea cucumber.

Crocodile meat is used to cure asthma in Chinese medicine and is a great food for keeping the respiratory system healthy during the cold months."

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Representatives from half a dozen Bay Area animal shelters and rescue groups asked the public's help Wednesday in remedying a serious statewide glut of the petite pooches.

'All the shelters in California are seeing an upswing in Chihuahua impounds,' Deb Campbell, a spokeswoman for the San Francisco animal care and control department, said in an interview. 'It's been a slow and steady climb. . . . We call it the Paris Hilton syndrome.'"

Dame Victoire “Paddy” Ridsdale once described Ian Fleming as “definitely James Bond in his mind”. Dame Paddy was definitely Miss Moneypenny — or at least a part of her.

Fleming and Dame Paddy, then plain Paddy Bennett, were colleagues in the wartime Naval Intelligence Department: he was assistant to the Chief of Naval Intelligence; she was a secretary, and a most formidable one, with at least some of the characteristics associated with Fleming’s second-most beloved creation."

Police: Suspected robbers dump cash out window during chase | khou.com | Local News: "A group of thieves who held up a game room decided they didn’t want the cash after all, according to police. That’s because police were hot on their tails and they decided to dump the evidence out the window.[. . . .]During the chase, police said the two suspects began tossing money out of the window. It was estimated that the suspects had over $5,000 in cash. The chase ended after three miles when the suspects crashed."

Criminal Brief: The Mystery Short Story Web Log Project: "Today, as Chanukah ends, so does Phase I of our Christmas contest. Each CB story contains hints and suggestions, noteworthy being Sunday’s, Monday’s, Tuesday’s, and Friday’s which are peppered with hints, cues, and intimations."

YA steampunk. It's almost WWI, but not quite the way you learned about it in history class. The archduke's been assassinated, and his only son, Alek, is on the run in a Clanker, one of the steam-powered machines favored by the Austrians and Germans.

Meanwhile, in England, Deryn Sharp, a girl posing as a boy named Dylan, enters the air service and finds herself on the Leviathan, a monstrous living airship. See, in this England, Darwin has discovered how to manipulate DNA, so they have living machines called Huxleys (or possibly Huxlies; I forget). Leviathan is a whale, and a whole lot more. Before long, Deryn and Alek's adventures merge, and they're sailing off into the sequel.

There's a lot of good stuff here. The Clankers and the Huxlies (or Huxleys) are presented in such detail that you almost believe them, and the human characters are even better, particularly Deryn. And then there's the mysterious Dr. Barlow and her the even more mysterious eggs that she's trying to deliver to Constantinople.

High adventure, air battles, Clanker chases, and I almost forgot to mention the great illustrations by Keith Thompson that are scattered throughout. Fun for all ages, really.